why i won't be seeing 'avatar'

I am not going to see James Cameron's Avatar. I am not interested in white guilt recycled in space. Yes, I know that many sci-fi stories are some sort of race issue in space (or almost-space, ala Bladerunner), but at least Star Trek, Bladerunner, etc, try to be original. Avatar is clearly just white hero going "native", with the "natives" being a blatant show of othering and exoticism. People have been calling this "Dances with Smurfs", and really, that's what it looks like (though, I like to think of it as Ferngully + alien tits - Tim Curry's sexy voice). Now, this may be a bit disjointed, since I'm just posting this in case anyone asks me why I won't see this. So, I think I'm just going to do bullet points on why I won't see it.

1. The cultural appropriate to make the Navi "exotic". In an interview, Cameron said this about the design for the aliens' clothing: I designed her costumes based on a taparrabo, a loincloth thing worn by Mayan Indians. We go to another planet in this movie, so it would be stupid if she ran around in a Brazilian thong or a fur bikini like Raquel Welch in One Million Years B.C. So, a fur bikini is stupid, but Mayan clothing on a non-earth world isn't? That just confuses me. But my main problem with this is that the Mayan culture is being othered because Cameron thinks it looks exotic/"native". Every promo image I've seen of the Navi has the aliens wearing feathers and beads and using bow and arrows... and it's clear what they're going for with this. It's the stereotypical image that a lot of people have in mind when they think of Native Americans before they learn what kind of clothes Native Peoples really wore. By dressing the Navi up like this, Cameron is making people think of Native Americans, and enforcing the stereotypes of Natives as "earth people" or whatever.

2. The sexism in designing Zoe Saldana's character. To be specific, Cameron's "she's gotta have tits" statement. This. Bugs. The. CRAP out of me. Cameron has had plenty of strong female characters before, like Ripley and Sarah Connor. I love Sarah Connor. I love her to death. She's one of my fictional role models. And one of the reasons why I loved her was because she wasn't there just for the male gaze. She wasn't supposed to be hot, she was supposed to be strong. Now, that's not to say that hotness and strength can't go together - they totally can, look at that bombshell Princess Leia. The problem I have with Cameron's statement is that by saying 'Right from the beginning I said, "She's got to have tits," ', that's saying that her sex appeal comes before her strength, before any other characterization at all. In the interview Cameron said this in, he also stated that "real women are complicated", and that men need to realize that real women "don't look and act like Vampirella". Yet here he is, saying that the most important feature on this female character is her TITS.

3. The CGI hype. Okay, this is my weakest argument against it, but still, needs to be said. It feels like everyone I know has said that they don't like the story for Avatar, but they'll see it "for the good CGI". Well, I'm sorry, but pretty graphics aren't enough to make me see a film any more. I saw 300 because I thought the effects looked cool, and that was a huge waste of eight bucks. Besides, I don't even think the effects look all that better then other films I've seen.

4. The White Savior becoming one of, and then saving, the Noble Savages. Just... that. I've said it. It's the same plot as Dances with Wolves and other white guilt movies. I hate the fact that the natives have to be 'saved' by the White Hero. I'm sick of that cliche, and the way that it implies that native peoples can't save themselves.

So, there you go. Why I'm not seeing Avatar and would rather not hear any more hype about it.